Universal Beat Sheet
Beat Sheets are ways to gain extra beats (experience) to spend on your character, by delving further into the character's nuances and by giving storytelling staff more handles to interact with your character. Whenever a question asks you about someone from your past, you have the option of describing the relevant details and the interaction, but leaving them unnamed. This invites staff to match up the shadows in your past with the shadows in other PCs', giving another dimension of interaction. This Beat Sheet is available to everyone. Universal Beat Sheet (Twenty-Two Beats) 'Documentation '(Four Beats) Choosing an avatar ('played by') is worth one beat. Adding it to your +finger via +note is worth another beat. Setting up a wiki is worth two beats. Remember that your wiki is a tool to facilitate roleplay. It should contain any information that others require to roleplay effectively with you (such as a physical description - your appearance, the way you move, your voice - and any notable features like Striking Looks, or an incredibly intimidating demeanor). It should also contain any hooks that might help set up scenes (your favorite bar to hang out in, the morning jogs that would be an excuse to bump into people, the organizations you belong to that give an excuse for fellow members to encounter you). If you want to hint at things not commonly known, rumors are an excellent device. Anything that is purely OOC knowledge should be clearly marked - everything else is presumed to be available IC on a successful roll. This is usually a Socialize, Politics, or Streetwise roll, but in some instances other skills may be more appropriate. 'Daily (or Nightly) Life '(Seven Beats) What brings your character to Kingsmouth? How long have you been here? (One Beat) Take an extra beat if you have an existing character tie with a PC or named NPC already in Kingsmouth. The Resources Merit represents what money you have left at the end of the day, after you've paid your rent and bought your groceries. Characters who do not have any dots in Resources are not necessarily homeless, but they are living hand-to-mouth. From where does your income come? Do you have a job? If so, what is it you do and where do you do it? If you don't have a job, how do you get what you need for day-to-day survival? (One Beat) Take an extra Beat if you work at or for a specific named location on the grid. '' Whether or not you have a Safe Place or Haven, you have to rest somewhere. In which part of the city do you live/sleep? (One Beat) Describe your housing, Safe Place or Haven. What is it like? How have you personalized it and made it yours? If you don't have one, what are you doing instead? How do you feel about that? (One Beat) The World of Darkness is a dangerous place. What precautions (if any) do you regularly take to ensure your safety? (One Beat) 'First Contact '(Two Beats) It's almost impossible to live in the World of Darkness without coming across something supernatural - though it's frequently easy to rationalize it away. Describe the first brush you had with the supernatural. What actually happened? What did you think happened? Did it change anything for you? 'The Dark Time '(Five Beats) Every life has highs and lows. Describe your lowest point - when you were most vulnerable, when you had the most to lose, when you hit rock bottom. What happened? What did it look like on the inside, behind the mask, when you felt like you were unraveling? (One Beat) You can't keep all the balls in the air when everything is falling apart around you. Something - or someone - is bound to get overlooked or neglected. Who did you let down or abandon? How do you feel about that? (One Beat) Ideally, we all have a support network of friends or family, who will help support us when we need it - or at least be there to pick up the pieces. Who did you expect to be there for you that wasn't? Who let you down when you needed them most? What impact did that have on you? (One Beat) When you're falling, you'll grab hold of whatever lifeline you can find. What did you cling to in your dark time? Did you make a friend who was wrong in all the right ways? Join a cult or a gang? Take up smoking? Suffocate your troubles with food? Describe the coping strategy you used. (One Beat) Someone, in a time of need - though it may be a different time of need than the one just described! - saw you were in trouble and helped you out. You owe them a debt that would be hard to repay, and if they ever called on you for assistance you'd do everything you could to help them. What happened? Who was this person? How did they help you? (One Beat) 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs '(Four Beats) The theory is that the lower layers of the pyramid must be fulfilled before someone can concentrate on the next tier up. A person can't work on their self esteem if they can't put food in their mouth, but by the same measure the need for power is just as real as the need for sustenance; it's just that if a person's driving need is for power we can assume they have already satisfied the needs of physiology, safety, and belonging. What fulfils one person's need to belong, however, is not the same as what fulfils another person's need to belong. What is your hierarchy of needs? Physiological needs are likely to be different for vampires than they are for ghouls or humans, but the higher up the pyramid you go the more individuality there is likely to be. (One Beat) Specify one solid need that currently drives your character. (One Beat) Want is different than need. What is your deepest want? This is likely (but not guaranteed) to be the same thing as your long-term Aspiration. It may work in harmony with your needs, it may work in direct opposition, or it may be entirely unrelated. Why are you striving for this? What does it mean to you? (One Beat) What truly frightens your character is frequently (though again, not always) what stands in the way of them fulfilling their want or need. Everybody has fears and anxieties, even uber-powerful vampires. What do you fear? (One Beat) ''This Beat Sheet has not yet been finalized, and may be added to over the next few days. Category:Beat Sheets